NO. 50. — 1899.] SAMAN DEVALE MURAL STONE. 



95 



And because the tyrant feared, that with the succour that was 

 coming from India our troops would capture the fort that he had on 

 the confines of the Four Corlas, in which all his strength consisted, and 

 the security of those districts, he determined to undertake that affair 

 in person, in order both the better to provide for the safety of that 

 fort, and by his presence to give energy to that war, and provoke and 

 animate those inhabitants that were obedient to us to rebel and go 

 over to him, to discourage our people, and divert the General from 

 sending to make war on him as he was doing in the interior at his very 

 doors, and also to free his people from the evils with which they were 

 continually menaced by the daring and the victories that our troops 

 daily won. In this he did not succeed as he imagined, because the 

 General set so many spies upon him, that he could not take a step or 

 form a plan, of which he was not immediately advised ; upon which 

 he acted with the necessary promptness, because to this were always 

 due the victories that he gained ; and the tyrant, in order to effect 

 what he aimed at, betook himself to Candea, and marshalled two 

 armies — one of a thousand picked soldiers, whom he dispatched to 

 the regions of Putalao, in order to assist all the people of that district 

 and to go against Chilao by the borders of the sea ; and another of 

 three thousand men, whom he ordered to fortify themselves on the 

 frontier of the Seven Corlas ; and this they did on the skirts of a 

 mountain range, with the design, that should the General order an 

 attack on any of these they would fall upon our men in the rear, by 

 which means they thought they would gain a certain victory over them. 



The General having been apprised of everything reformed the camp, 

 ordering all the native soldiery to join it, who would be about two 

 thousand two hundred Portuguese soldiers, the commander of whom 

 was Salvador Pereira, and of the native troops Pinhao and Francisco 

 de Brito ; and he ordered them to fortify themselves in a place called 

 Tranqueira Alanha,* where they made a strong stockade of wood with 

 its traverses, sentry-boxes, and ditches, so as to remain there in the 

 midst of these two armies of enemies at an equal distance from one 

 and the other, in order by this means to curb the foe, and make them 

 lose the pride and the hopes that they had of prevailing against us, 

 because thus they would not be able to succour one another, in that 

 their forces were divided ; and after having well fortified themselves 

 our troops sallied forth full of vain-glory, leaving the stockade well 



* Stockade of Alanha, i.e., Allawwa. Perhaps Alanha is a misprint for 

 Alauha. Ribeiro (II., chapter XVII.) has Lahoa, and Bocarro has " the river 

 of Laoa." Valentyn, in his map of Ceylon, shows "Alanha" (and 

 " Arandery") on the " Caymelle " river, while " Alauw " is shown on a road 

 some way south of this river. In his description of Ceylon he in one place 

 identifies " Alanha " with " Alauw," while in another place he distinguishes 

 them. They are evidently one and the same. In Baldasus's map the place 

 is entered as " Alaune." — D. W. F. 



